Every word from Leeds United boss Jesse Marsch's pre-Tottenham Hotspur press conference including January transfer window update

For Jesse Marsch’s pre-Tottenham press conference, all the news to follow here.

Awaiting Jesse Marsch

Jesse takes his seat

“I’ll give you a few updates on a couple things. Archie Gray has turned into a little bit of an ankle injury and so we’re in a situation with his age and he’s still growing that we have to shut it him down for about six to eight weeks. It’s a little defect that he has in his ankle that kind of got highlighted when his toe got broken so it’s unfortunate. I spoke to Archie a little bit today, he is obviously we doubt about it but we think given his age and his maturity, physical maturity that this is the best thing for him. Adam Forshaw has been training hard back out on the pitch and if the Tottenham game was maybe three days later we would consider him probably eligible for the match but it at least means that he should be ready for when we get back after the World Cup to get into training and get himself back to 100 per cent. Stuart is making great progress as well and we’ll see how that goes but maybe we get him on the pitch at some point towards the end of December, early January. And then Patrick is out for this match. He still hasn’t recovered. Clichy took a knee to knee knock in the match against Wolves and he’ll be out. And then the other one is Jack Harrison is a little bit questionable with a muscle strain but we’re hopeful that in the next 24 hours he can recover and be available for tomorrow as well.”

“We’ve been talking a lot internally and now I guess externally about being winners, that in a lot of these matches that we’re right in the match and that the way that the games have gone, it’s often very even and we have to be more poised to capitalise on those situations and stay strong and stable. Even though the match can open up a little bit more in the second half and it can be a little bit more fragile defensively but it also means that the opponent is a little bit more vulnerable in those moments and that’s what was good to see, in both of those matches that that we were able to capitalise and we looked at those matches like we were going to win.”

Of course with our three guys we want them to have a great World Cup and have a great experience there. I always think as a as a player, the way to get injured is to play to not get injured. And I think that Rasmus, Tyler and Brenden have all committed to the games fully and have their minds fully grounded in what’s necessary for us in this last match and I think they also know that that will prepare them the best for the World Cup. With us, some teams have ten guys, 15, 20, Man City I don’t know, maybe their entire squad. But for us I think the first part is that we’re happy for those three guys. They’ve they’ve been playing at a very high level. We’re disappointed for a lot of our other guys that maybe just missed out, barely, guys like Rodri and Diego today. They found out that they weren’t. I think Robin has has had such a good season so far that he was a possibility for Germany. Patrick and Jack were on the50-man squad. Even Pascal was in the squad. Klichy winds up not making it which is a bit of a surprise. We’re disappointed for those guys and we want our guys our other three to stay focused right now and have a great World Cup.

“No and they and they know that. Strategically we made the decision to not travel a lot of our players that we thought would be playing in this match against Tottenham, to keep them fresh to keep them ready mentally, physically, and to give us the best chance to go down there and give our best effort to get the three points. I think that they’ve been really sharp this week. Even I came back Thursday and we were all a little bit tired from travel and everything else but then coming back you can see the freshness in the group that had slept well and was ready for the match on Saturday and training was really good and and I expect them to push and be ready.”

“It was a little bit of a roller coaster for Klichy in the last week. About a week ago he felt he was out. There was communication going around Poland and he felt he was out. And then a few days ago they were still deliberating I think on the squad and then maybe he heard that there was maybe a chance. And then by the time I spoke to him on match day against Wolves, when the announcement was coming out he kind of figured that he was probably out again so there was a couple of things happening internally in Poland, one of which is the manager came from the youth team or the 21s or something like that and he’s more comfortable taking more of the younger players and so that kind of left Klichy in an awkward situation. But if you know Klichy he’s a positive guy. He’s a guy that loves football. Obviously he’s disappointed, everyone wants to go to the World Cup but his mindset and his mentality to be in the moment here and give everything to us has been really good.”

“If Jack seems a little bit questionable then Willy becomes a real possibility. I think Sam Greenwood as well played really well when he came off the bench so it’s a little bit what tactic we decide to use and is Willy a better fit or is Sam a better fit to supplement what we would require from Jack? But regardless, I think that both played really well against Bournemouth, both played well when they came on against Wolves and I know that both will be ready.”

“They will all have a week off. Then we give them a physical program for another week to do on their own so they will have two weeks off but the first week they do absolutely nothing. Then we come back on the 28th here and we do testing. We have a good plan and I think we have some good opponents and then we will have most of our team together which is a positive.”